Wednesday, November 14, 2007

When Hasbro makes a new Transformers toy they will release at minimum two versions of the toy. As these toys get released there are the inevitable debate about the paint scheme, what would have worked better etc. Why not make a website where users can help select paint schemes? The webpage could have a model of the toy and have some basic information about the toy such as what is typically mirrored on the left and right side and any basic breakdowns such as where the hands end and the arms begin. Pretty much anywhere on the toy where it would typically not be expected to have painted with different colors. Now with that up and running generate a half dozen paint jobs for the toy randomly. The user on the website can select the paint jobs that it likes which would be the fitness function for a genetic algorithm on the paint job. With enough users (and there are plenty) you should be able to generate some really nice paint schemes as suggestions for the second (and sometimes third or fourth) versions of the toy.